Category Archives: skulls

Last month I was on location at The Apple in Bridgetown filming Episode 2 of my 3-part surfboard painting tutorials. I’m just winding up the film editing and thought I’d post a few screen caps from the clip – I think this one’s going to be a real corker!

This pin was a commission for George who has a collection of retro pins that he’s getting custom painted by low-brow artists all over the world. I was the first artist off the rank with this rendition of the life (and death) of Ned Kelly.

If you happen to be a non-Australian, Ned Kelly was an iconic Aussie bushranger (aka.highwayman) who was famous for stealing and murdering his way about town and having an allmighty shoot out with the authorities while wearing a suit of armour shaped like a mailbox. Amongst the fighting, the police who believed him to be some kind of indestructible demon, finally figured out that he wasn’t wearing armour on his LEGS. So they shot him in his achilles heel – HIS LEGS – and he was bought to justice. When told the date he was going to be hung he uttered his world-famous (in Australia) phrase: Such is Life.

I’ve been busy moving house for the past week, so poor bloggy has been sadly neglected but I’d like to take the time out to share with you one of my favourite things: anatomy drawings.

I was recently browsing my favourite bookstore and found a book on historical Anatomy Drawings, and since I’m always trawling the web for images of “skulls looking up” or “skeleton hand smoking” and it was awesomely cheap, I bought it. Inside I found drawings and etchings of horrifyingly beautiful complexity – I’ve included some of the ones I found most evocative and stunning and spared you guys the more explicit and nightmare-inducing examples like the severed torso giving birth and the flayed man casually standing with his hide flung jauntily over shoulder.